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Hatsubai « One too many pickups »
Published on 07/07/11 at 18:37The Les Paul Classic has long since been one of the top of the line models that Gibson has ever made. This version is another take on it with three pickups instead of two. It has a mahogany body with a maple top, a set mahogany neck with an ebony fretboard and trapezoid inlays, 22 frets, binding all around, tune-o-matic bridge, three humbuckers, two volumes, two tones and a three way switch.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was put together fairly nicely. There were no issues with the nut. The best way to tell is to simply play it. If you keep noticing you're going out of tune and it "pings" when you tune, that means the nut is cut improperly. The fretwork was also pretty good on this. I was able to achieve relatively low action without any real issues. The binding work looked nice, and the gold hardware didn't have any tarnish on it. The middle pickup, however, really got in the way of picking. That was pretty annoying.
SOUNDS
These pickups were definitely classically voiced. The neck pickup has the typical Les Paul sound. It could get nice and vowely when you wanted it to, and it does a great blues tone. The bridge pickup sounded pretty fat, but the ebony helped add some treble to give it some cut. That way, you're not totally lost in the mix and trying to battle other frequencies. The middle pickup was a let down, but I didn't expect much from it. I never really use the middle pickup, and I question why it was even here.
OVERALL OPINION
The middle pickup is really the biggest downer on this guitar. It got in the way of picking, and I couldn't really find a good use for it. I like HSH, HSS and SSS configured guitars, but I could never truly get along with an HHH configured guitar for whatever reason. I don't think humbuckers are meant to be in the middle position, personally. Then again, that's just a personal taste kind of thing.
UTILIZATION
The guitar was put together fairly nicely. There were no issues with the nut. The best way to tell is to simply play it. If you keep noticing you're going out of tune and it "pings" when you tune, that means the nut is cut improperly. The fretwork was also pretty good on this. I was able to achieve relatively low action without any real issues. The binding work looked nice, and the gold hardware didn't have any tarnish on it. The middle pickup, however, really got in the way of picking. That was pretty annoying.
SOUNDS
These pickups were definitely classically voiced. The neck pickup has the typical Les Paul sound. It could get nice and vowely when you wanted it to, and it does a great blues tone. The bridge pickup sounded pretty fat, but the ebony helped add some treble to give it some cut. That way, you're not totally lost in the mix and trying to battle other frequencies. The middle pickup was a let down, but I didn't expect much from it. I never really use the middle pickup, and I question why it was even here.
OVERALL OPINION
The middle pickup is really the biggest downer on this guitar. It got in the way of picking, and I couldn't really find a good use for it. I like HSH, HSS and SSS configured guitars, but I could never truly get along with an HHH configured guitar for whatever reason. I don't think humbuckers are meant to be in the middle position, personally. Then again, that's just a personal taste kind of thing.